From the time of the confirmation of the initial cases of the current West Africa Ebola outbreak in Guinea in March 2014, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, comprising National Red Cross Red Crescent Societies, the IFRC Secretariat and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been an essential part of the extensive global effort mobilized to stop the epidemic. National Societies in affected countries assumed a lead role, complementing their national health systems. Immediately the outbreak was confirmed, IFRC organized its resources to provide coordinated operational support National Societies.

The unprecedented spread of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in West Africa has resulted in one of the most challenging public health disasters in recent times. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is part of the extensive global effort mobilized to contain the epidemic in solidarity with the affected countries and the international community.

With more than 10,000 Red Cross volunteers trained in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, supported by the Red Cross Red Crescents network of 189 National Societies worldwide, the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement uniquely played a critical role in responding to the outbreak while fostering preparedness in at-risk countries. The management and supervision of the EVD operation shifted to Countries under the supervision and support of technical department at the Africa Region office after the exit of the Ebola Regional Coordination Unit. The overall EVD operation responsibility of the appeal was transferred to respective country Representative under the supervision of the Health Coordinator at Africa Region Office.

The 10 Country European Union funded Beneficiary Communication and Social Mobilization project continued until October 2016. The responsibility of overseeing this project was transferred to the Africa Region Office after the exit of the Ebola Coordination Unit. The main objective of the project was to reduce the threat of an outbreak of Ebola and other prevalent epidemic threats and infectious diseases in the surrounding countries (of the mainly affected countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea) by addressing at risk groups and risk-related behaviors among the population of the ten target countries.

The aim was to strengthen prevention and control the spread of the most prevalent infectious diseases by increasing knowledge on the causes, symptoms and modes of transmission and promoting healthy behaviors as well as the early detection of infectious diseases. The Africa Region Office also maintained PMER capacity in Nairobi and Dakar to support updates on the Country level appeals and the Regional Beneficiary Communications project for West Africa. Activities in the 10 country EU Beneficiary Communications project were concluded in October 2016.As per the project agreement, final narrative reports from the National Societies implementing the project was received in January 2017. The financial reports for the Beneficiary communications project required additional review before being finalized. Furthermore, a consultant was recruited to finalize a synthesis document which is a compilation of various Ebola reports, evaluations and studies for reference purpose. Because of these reasons, a three-month no cost project extension was requested to ensure proper closure of P60018-MDR60002 that led to the new end-date is 31 March 2017.